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Julie Christofferson Titchbourne

Former scientologist, sued the Church and Hubbard
for $43 million.

«Julie
Christofferson Titchbourne. Brought a case in 1977 in
Portland, Oregon, who since that date has married and is
known as Julie Christofferson Titchbourne. She was seventeen
when she first took Scientology courses for nine months
between 1975-6, during which time she completed a basic
course and started another one, and paid $3202 for books
and materials. She left Scientology and was, with parental
help, subsequently deprogrammed.

This led her to claim
damages against the Church of Scientology because it had
made fraudulent claims that it would improve her eyesight
and raise her intelligence. The case seemed to set a precedent
in that claims made by religious organizations could be
considered subject to laws governing consumer goods. At
first the lawsuit asked for $30,000 but this soon grew and
Julie was awarded $2 million in damages in 1979. The Church
of Scientology successfully appealed, and a re-trial was
ordered. In 1983 Mrs Titchbourne made her eighth change
in the damages sought; she asked for $43 million. The trial
proceeded with attorney Garry McMurry representing her,
and Earle Cooley for the Church of Scientology of California.
Julie had added a request for damages against Hubbard himself
to her suit. The testimony was of a general nature relating
to Hubbard, the RPF, the culling of pc folders and other
examples of Church of Scientology misconduct.

On Friday, 17 May 1985 the jury announced its verdict:
$39 million damages, of which $20 million were awarded against
Hubbard personally. This led to thousands of Scientologists
assembling in Oregon to protest the decision. John Travolta
flew into Oregon in his Lear jet to join in the protest,
and Chick Corea cancelled a concert to attend. Judge Londer
granted a mistrial on the grounds that McMurry's closing
speech was improper and prejudicial for mentioning the RPF
and culling of folders for assessment of damages, and that
his remarks that the jury could determine which Scientology
courses were secular and which were religious amounted to
a directed verdict. — Lamont. (Also, Julie Christofferson
Titchbourne.)»

One thing I am absolutely certain of:
When Mike Sutter said he would kill her, he meant it, absolutely
and literally. He certainly was not reprimanded or corrected
at the time by anyone for suggesting this, and if any action
was taken against him later, it was nothing I ever heard about
– nor did anybody ever pull me aside and say, "You know we would
never actually do that, right?" or some such. In fact, a few
months later he was promoted to RTC. He was still in RTC as
late as 1995 or so. I don't know if he has been seen in the
last few years. That could mean a number of things. He could
just have a post that never requires him to leave the Gold Base,
or he could have gone to the RPF, or he could have been transferred
somewhere else on some secret post or mission. Or, for all I
know, he could have gone off to do the Hit Man Full Hat and
Apprenticeship.

A jury today awarded $39 million to a woman who says the Church
of Scientology defrauded her with claims it would improve her
eyesight and make her more intelligent.

The Multnomah Circuit
Court jury, after a 10-week trial and two and a half days of
deliberations, found that the church defrauded the woman, Julie
Christofferson Titchbourne, who had been a church member for
nine months.

As a result of these legal coups, lawyers for Titchbourne were
able to provide a window through which no jury had ever before
viewed this extraordinary and controversial worldwide organization,
which evolved out of Hubbard's bestselling book called Dianetics:
The Modern Science of Mental Health. (Dianetics was published
in 1950; Hubbard founded Scientology in 1954.) What the jurors
were presented with in this case is obvious from their verdict.
They saw a group characterized by:

Deceit so rampant that it permeates the organization;

Shocking and effective methods of controlling its members,
especially full time staff members;

A much-used and almost limitless policy of attacking
anyone who dares to criticize or attempts to expose aspects
of the group (this policy is used not only against people
who actually commit some action against Scientology, but
also against many, both in and out of the group, who
might do so);

A lust for money that has resulted in staggering volumes
of income for the group;

An organizational structure designed to maximize the
power and income of L. Ron Hubbard, while concealing both.

Typical was the experience of
17-year-old Julie Christofferson, a high-school honors
graduate who was invited by an acquaintance — actually a
shill — to take a “communications course.” (The church
advertises that these “field-staff members” get
ten-percent commissions on all money their recruits
pay.) Unknowingly, Julie hooked herself onto a mind-scrambling conveyor belt of hypnotic “training routines”
developed by Hubbard. The recruit, cynically referred to
as “raw meat,” sits knee to knee with a “coach” for
hours, her eyes closed. Next she sits, eyes open, for
hours. Then the coach tries to find “emotional buttons.”
Hours of command drills follow:
“Lift that chair.” “Move that chair.”
“Sit in that chair.”

As Margaret Thaler Singer, a University of California
psychologist who interviewed Julie and over 400 former
members of cults, observes, “These routines can split
the personality into a severe, dissociated state, and
the recruits are hooked before they realize what is
happening.”

Julie found that the next step, auditing, continued to
erase the boundary between reality and fantasy. In this
phase, Julie exhausted all $3000 of her college savings.
Then she was told she could take
college-level courses while going “on staff” and working
full-time to recruit and process new raw meat. She ended
up working 60 to 80 hours a week, at a maximum salary of
$7.50. She had now reached the “robotlike” state.

Julie felt superior, one of the chosen elite of the
universe. She was one of the faithful who are promised
they will “go with Ron to the next planet.” Thus, they
are conditioned to the “us against them” outlook that
characterizes so much religious and political
fanaticism.

Julie Christofferson was among the lucky, however.
After nine months, her parents removed her from the cult
and snapped her out of her zombielike trance. Last
August, a Portland, Ore., jury found the church's
conduct so fraudulent and outrageous that it awarded her
$2,067,000.20 in damages.

Scientology courses are designed to make students dependent
on their instructors so it is "easier to brainwash them," a
disaffected Church of Scientology communications supervisor
testified Tuesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court.